The word “cancer” is terrifying to most of us because it carries with it images of doom. However, there is no one disease called “cancer” but rather a number of diseases that share a common feature: the growth of cells that have lost the ability to control the cell cycle. Some of these diseases are quite treatable, while others are much more difficult and are, in fact, life threatening and often terminal.

The commonality of the diseases has to do with the cell cycle itself, shown below with several of the key control points indicated: Read the rest of this entry »